Sword Cemetery . First public cemetery in Cuba and Hispanic America inaugurated on February 2, 1806 in Villa de San Cristóbal de La Habana . It meant a pioneering sign of modernity for Latin America and the Spanish metropolis and was an important step to improve the hygiene and health of the growing and already overcrowded population of the city. For almost a century it sheltered nobles, rich, poor and usurers, without distinction of origin or race. Its regulations were the model of those that were drawn up later for other cemeteries in Latin America .
Summary
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- 1 History
- 1 Architect of the work
- 2 Closure of the cemetery
- 2 Another Havana cemetery
- 3 external links
- 4 Sources
History
The Espada Cemetery, first called the General Cemetery of Havana, was built thanks to the interest shown by the Governor General Don Luis de las Casas , Tomás Romay , Don Felipe de Tres Palacios , the Economic Society of Friends of the Country in full and above all , Bishop Juan José Díaz de Espada y Fernández Landa , after whom it will be named.
The enclosure was built after the Royal Order that prohibited the continuation of burials in the temples, as this unhygienic practice is a breeding ground for the appearance of epidemics.
The work cost, in its initial construction, 46 thousand 868 pesos strong. It consisted of a rectangle enclosed by perimeter walls, with space for four thousand six hundred tombs, ossuaries, and a chapel to say goodbye to the deceased.
It was located in the perimeter that makes up the current streets of Aramburu, San Francisco, Vapor and San Lázaro.
The entrance door faced south, and had in the upper part of the semicircular arch that finished it off, an inscription in bronze letters where the following inscription could be read in Spanish and Latin: To Religion, To Public Health .
Architect of the work
The project and execution of the work were in charge of the French architect Etienne-Sulpice Hallet , based in the United States , from where he moved to Havana around 1800 .
Another creator who participated with his frescoes in the embellishment of the interior of the dome of the necropolis chapel was the Italian painter Guiseppe Perovani , who is said to have started a school of neoclassical painting in Havana.
Shortly after the cemetery was founded, the anatomy or San Dionisio room was built next to it, where the events that would serve as a pretext for the execution of the medical students in 1871 took place .
Cemetery Closure
The Espada cemetery was closed in 1878 . Only one wall with niches and covers remains of it, which closes Aramburu Street, to the north, in the municipality of Centro Habana , but in its time and for several decades, it was a source of pride for Havanans. Among the personalities buried there, was the Bishop of Espada himself, whose remains were transferred to the Colón Cemetery in 1878 ; Jose de la Luz y Caballero ; Francisco de Arango y Parreno ; the German poet and socialist, George Weerth ; the Spanish painter Juan Bautista Vermay , founder of the San Alejandro Academy of Painting; Dr Tomas Romay, whose remains are today in the Museum of Medical Sciences and the Count of Santa Cruz de Mopox , father of the famous Countess of Merlín .
Another Havana cemetery
The Cemetery of the Protestants, also known as Cemetery of the Americans and Cemetery of the English, was the first known official site to deposit the remains of non-Catholic residents or shelves in Havana.
Since May 1667 , Spain and England signed a treaty that in one of its clauses referred to the burial that Spain should grant to the English who died in one of its domains.
But it was not until the beginning of the 19th century that the Protestant Cemetery was built, on the land sold by Antonio de Frías in what was then known as Mount Vedado, exactly on the area between 11th, 15th, B and E, at the bottom of the current Parroquia del Vedado. Since its foundation, it had its own regulations for which the Captain General Marqués de Someruelos was responsible.
For a body to be buried, the figure of 30 reales had to be paid. The route to follow to reach the cemetery started from the Puerta de la Punta towards the Santa Clara battery, located where the Hotel Nacional is today , and from here along a path, perhaps the current Calle Línea, to the cemetery.
In 1835 the Protestant Cemetery was in a state of neglect and desolation. Over time it housed fewer corpses and became a dark and fearsome place that everyone wanted to get away from.
On September 16, 1841 , on the occasion of the death and funeral of the English lieutenant Dawson, buried in the Espada Cemetery, the British consul in Havana, David Turnbull, wrote to the captain general of the island, Don Gerónimo Valdés , a protest against the conditions of the Cemetery of the Protestants, “where the corpses were exposed to the face of the day and where the birds of prey and the worms contend for their share of the human remains…”
As a result, it was agreed to build a new necropolis for non-Catholics on the grounds of the Hospital de San Lázaro. The person in charge of preparing the project was Don Tomás O’Naghten, mason of said institution. But the project was very expensive and was never carried out. Finally, the cemetery was closed in the second half of the 19th century.
